Az prijde kocour

In a small town in Czechoslovakia, the old story teller Oliva (Jan Werich) likes to plant fantasy in the brains of the children. Presently he tells the story of his former love and her magic cat, which wears glasses, to the class of the beloved and romantic teacher Robert (Vlastimil Brodský). When someone takes the glasses off, the cat shows the real feelings and personality of the person: red for those in love, purple for the hypocrites, yellow for the unfaithful and gray for the dishonest. Then, a coach arrives in town, bringing a magician (Jan Werich), the beautiful Diana (Emília Vásáryová) and the magic cat. The real feelings of the mostly selfish population are exposed, generating confusion, and the evil school director (Jirí Sovák) and the school janitor (Vladimir Mensik) decide to eliminate the cat. The students of Robert join forces to save the cat and the job of their teacher.

This beautiful and fantastic fable about human behavior is timeless and very original. The story has a great moral lesson in the end without being corny, and is highly recommended for all audiences. In Brazil, it is only available in a rare VHS. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'Um Dia, Um Gato' ('One Day, A Cat')

Note: On 12 June 2010, I saw this magnificent film again on DVD.

"The romance between Robert and Diana has a swooning roundelay feel and Vásáryová is a gorgeous stunner in her crimson one-piece dress, whereas Brodský is an all-too hangdog nonentity that their mismatch involuntarily betrays a self-pleasing masculine fantasy. But Svatopluk Havelka's accompanying score is a lush orchestral phenomenon, WHEN THE CAT COMES is more a musical fantasy than a straight-faced parable about human nature. Plus the implementation of children as the ultimate symbol of conscience is again, an over-simplified ideal that seems more farcical than its intention in its end result.

That said, Jasný's film is a testimony of the ceaseless wellspring that generates Czechoslovak New Wave movement, the imaginings, the innovations, the forms of expression, and the pursuit of aestheticizing, which is different from other motion pictures elsewhere in the world at that time. Its mentality may sometimes err on the side of naivety and rigidity, which creates a unique situation where the overflowing creativity clashes with an ideological stasis, a fascinating geopolitical aspect of the movement."

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The Cassandra Cat was one of the cutest films of the Eastern Bloc Cinema; the film was created in 1963, five years before Prague Spring erupted, It tells the story of a Strange Cat that arrived in a Small town, and that Cat made many people crazy, I know that this movie was funniest. I love it, and the Actor who plays Diana. Her name was Emília Vasaryová she so beautiful, and I know that this movie was the best and I loved it; good performance and many characters are Charming; I know that many people didn't watch this movie, but I recommended it to watch because this film was beautiful and cute.

In a small town, Jan Werich is an amiable storyteller who tells the children about a fabulous cat who wear sunglasses. When his eyes are uncovered, anyone he looks at has their nature revealed by the color they turn. Up shows the cat, and raises havoc among the adults, particularly Jirí Sovák, the smarmy bureaucrat who understands everything, once it's dead.

It's one of those wobbly fantasies of the 1960s like THE SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO who attempt to exalt the honesty of children -- not that I saw much of that as a child. There are lots of special effects which nowadays look like director Vojtech Jasný and his staff got their hand on an optical printer for the first time. At the time, I'm sure this movie was pretty much state-of-the-art for Eastern Europe. It hasn't aged particularly well, but there's little doubt it will still appeal to children in its insistence that they and truth matter.

If seeing through someone's lies and deceit was as simple as the color they were projecting. Such is the case for this movie, which I watched under the title "The Cassandra Cat." In a small town in Czechoslovakia, a teacher is conveying the beauty of free thought, expression and art to his class, something that does not go over too well with the rigid and conservative hierarchy of the school's leadership. The teacher tells his kids about a cat with the ability to see through the veneer of someone's outer deception, painting them in vivid colors which clash mightily against the drab and cold backdrop of the town.

During this time, a lot of changes were happening in Czechoslovakia, especially from a social standpoint as the tenets of Soviet communism clashed with a desire for national democratic socialism. These sort of things happen when your country falls into an economic stagnation, which is visualized in the film as no one seems to really live a comfortable life. Ultimately, this film didn't see much of an audience for years as the country decided to keep its more rigid outlook on economics and free thought. Hence, this is why the film is so divisive.

The Cassandra Cat, as was once described in an old magazine many years ago, sees through the "bulls**t" that many people are projecting. If you take the glasses off the cat, your true colors come out so to speak. Red if you are in love, yellow if you are unfaithful, purple if you are a hypocrite and gray if you are dishonest. So yes, it would be quite scary to see this cat come into your town even under the guise of a whimsical performance troupe.

Ultimately, this movie speaks about the frailty of the human condition and how malleable it can be. As the final scene showcases, a person can change colors quite easily, especially when it comes to the less desirable colors of the Cassandra Cat's gaze. Only those with the purest of hearts can be the red color. Either way, its a great film to watch, witnessing how other countries were going through similar political and social turmoil like the United States.

And for all intents and purposes, the cat was adorable.